Making a Deal
by Abel Quartz
Summary: [Short] Jasper has an explosive reaction after one of many rehabilitation lessons; Connie decides to track her down and give her a piece of her mind.


Connie ran out to the porch through the hole where the screen door used to be. She would have leaned over the railing, but that particular section was no longer there. A plank slid down from its broken attachment and clattered to the boards outside Steven's house. From how far she could see, Jasper had stomped outside of Connie's shouting range and was continuing to stomp down the beach, leaving a steaming trail of burnt grass sand craters in her wake.

It was the first time Connie had seen Steven lose his cool like that, and it had been too late to warn him before Jasper was yelling right back. The Gem had followed the house rule about not hitting, thank goodness, but when Connie looked back inside she could see Steven still on the couch in shock, staring into space with tears welling up in his eyes.

As bad as she felt for him, Connie knew that Jasper wouldn't be privy to the "earth lessons" they had planned out. Papers and diagrams that had been so neatly arranged now decorated the front room in confetti shreds. They needed another approach.

He'd be fine. Steven wasn't so naive as to assume he could do the same thing over again, not after all they had been through to bring Jasper to this point already. Connie took a breath, silently apologized for leaving so suddenly, and ran down the stairs after their unwilling student.

Jasper's tracks extended down the coastline for nearly a mile before Connie caught up to where the Gem was sitting. The human girl thanked her endurance training, but still had to catch her breath as she approached Jasper. She was sitting on the sand, her knees pulled up to her chin, eyes fixated on some point over the horizon. Chunks of green spikes jutted from her shoulders and face, and smaller pieces jutted through all over her body. Even though she didn't acknowledge the girl's presence, Connie knew that Jasper was aware of her.

"Go away."

Or maybe she wanted to acknowledge her after all. Connie did not, in fact, go away, and took careful steps in Jasper's direction. Only when the Gem turned her head to glare did Connie stop. That was close enough. Connie turned towards the ocean as well and sat with Jasper, a couple meters apart, paralleling her companion's pose.

"…I said go away."

"Why did you run?"

"Because I didn't want to be there."

Baby steps. Connie crossed her legs and pulled on her overall straps, adjusting herself as she decided where to go. The waves took over their silence.

"I know that you don't like doing all of this, and that you don't really like Earth that much," Connie said after a moment. "But you're smart enough to know we can't keep going like this."

"Like what? Like with me as your prisoner?"

Connie resisted the urge to throw sand in Jasper's direction.

"Like with all this…resistance," she said, "all this hostility. You're not on Homeworld anymore, Jasper. Things are different here?"

The Gem blew out a dismissive snort, turning her head away from the human.

"Yeah, different. And I hate it here," Jasper growled.

"What aren't you - getting about Earth?" Connie snapped. "If you were up there, you'd be forced to follow orders from the Diamonds all day, stuck with other Gems that were so scared all the time, and - "

Jasper slammed her fist hard enough in the sand to make the beach jump under Connie. The girl paused, biting her tongue in frustration.

"What's so different here?!"

That made Connie actually pause. She found herself facing Jasper with a fiery retort on her tongue, but she thought about what she had said, the exact words, and her own brain checked off a list of regrets as Jasper bared her teeth at the ocean.

"You force me to live in one room," she snarled, "and then you talk about choice, and about freedom, and how everyone's so free on Earth, and then you all treat me like I'm some kind of - You don't want me to have choice! You want me to be just like that soft freak up there who can't see past his own gem!"

Insulting Steven crossed more than one line in Connie's brain. If she hadn't already struck a nerve, that would have unleashed a tirade. The human stood and turned towards Jasper.

"Because your choices hurt people," she said, forcefully calm. "That's the problem, Jasper. You need to make choices for other people, not just you."

"I used to."

"What?…"

Jasper took a huge, fuming breath, but with the crash of a wave, the energy that had built up left her body and gently dribbled out onto the sand. The uneasy change almost made Connie want to step back.

"I used to make choices for her."

There it was, that Homeworld anchor. Connie remembered the first time they had told Jasper about Pink Diamond's death. Greg had had to spend a few thousand dollars to replace the damaged floorboards and furniture. The other Gems said it was the only time anyone had seen a Jasper cry.

"She was proud of me. And she didn't treat me like a pebble, a foot soldier. I respected her and she respected me. I could see it in her eyes."

The first motion made Connie flinch, reflexively reaching for a sword that wasn't there. The Gem just continued to turn, standing to her full height as she walked over to Connie and stared down.

"If I knew how to be scared, I would be," Jasper said. "You all want me to be scared so you can take me and comfort me like I'm defenseless. Well, I'm not. I never was."

Born ready, Connie thought, and it was no exaggeration. And she was right. Steven didn't work like that, not in his approach. Looking back, Connie was almost embarrassed by how coddling some of the lessons and lectures must have seemed. After Lapis and Peridot and the Off Colors, they had been used to it. Jasper needed something new.

"I…am sorry."

Jasper crossed her arms as Connie continued. "I'm sorry," Connie said, "for the…way that we've been talking to you. We haven't been doing the right thing. But we're trying our best. I want to make this place right for you. And if I listen to you, and if I talk to Steven and the Gems and have them understand how they've been treating you, will you try?"

Jasper curled her lip. Connie knew that she recognized sincerity. Despite her tense pose, the Gem turned her head down and shrugged. It was a start.

"Come on, then, if you want," Connie said, taking a step towards the house. "We can relax for a bit and - "

"I want to punch a boulder."

"After we help Steven clean up the house, you can punch a boulder. Deal?"

"…deal."

The two of them started moving back to the Temple. Each of the arms seemed to beckon them peacefully, cautiously. It might never be the physical home of this warrior, but as she looked at Jasper's stoic face, Connie knew she'd find her place in the world. Jasper would find a place if she had to carve it in a mountainside with her own hands.


End file.
